Dear Brave Mama

Dear friend,

James and I are excitedly waiting to meet you, to join our story to yours and begin a new adventure in love and family. 

Our own story begins in Sept. 2014 in a dating app called Tinder. We both swiped right, started chatting, met four days later, and have spent pretty much every day together since! We married in March 2015 and have had amazing experiences in learning who we are and loving who we’re becoming.

But, you know...our story—my husband—wouldn’t exist without the bravery and the immeasurable sacrifice of perfect love that a mother made many years ago. James’s dad, Brad, was adopted as a baby. He married his high school sweetheart. James is their oldest son. We found each other because two families came together to make one expanded story, and I will be forever grateful. Brad found his birth mother many years later, and we love her! What a blessing family is in all the ways it takes shape.

And while we’re on the subject of extended family, ours is huge! Our kids will have three sets of incredible grandparents, 12 uncles and aunts, 9 cousins and counting, and that’s not including ALL the family that extends beyond that. See the Whole Wide Fam for more details on our awesome tribe.

If you were to ask what kind of couple we are, I think Beauty and the Beast pretty much sums us up. I love books, pastries, French, and adventure in the great wide somewhere. James is a big, bearded, muscly gentleman of many emotions. He is a giant teddy bear mixed with a tamed beast of well-managed anxiety and depression.

When he was a missionary in Baltimore, MD, in 2007, James was diagnosed with anxiety and depression, conditions that had been constant in his life but undefined until then. He steered his way through this new reality and kept his faith moving despite plenty of challenges, and finally found me. He tells me all the time he would’ve gone through all this and more knowing that I was at the end of the climb.

We may have had a quick courtship, but we still had to work hard to create a peaceful and loving relationship. Combining my optimism with James’s stalwart foundation to never give up meant that it didn’t take long to build a love that I don’t think Disney could animate. In short, we never fight, we never raise voices, and if we disagree on something, we always take the time to find a solution in harmony. It’s seriously one of my proudest accomplishments, our peaceful marriage. I believe it’s something everyone can have, with the right effort and the patience to find and cultivate a truly great match.

I was 30 when I found James. In my dating years, I never hurried into anything I didn’t feel like I could commit to 100%. That’s kinda how I am. The tortoise, not the hare. Slow and steady is always how I win my races. I’m a list maker, a homebody, a bit of an artist, a foodie gumshoe, a writer and editor, a reader, popcorn lover, and huge fan of cooking shows (crime shows too—guilty pleasure!).

James has a witty and sarcastic sense of humor and makes me laugh daily. He loves working on machines and making knives. He reads comics, plays tabletop games and paints all the figurines he puts into play, plays video games, he works out at the gym six days a week, and he tells me he loves me and I’m beautiful every day.

We love food. Like LOVE it. Me, I try to guess the ingredients used in everything I taste, carefully savoring flavors to discern the story behind a good meal. Anywhere we travel, we go find the food that sets that place apart. At home, I’m always donning an apron to cook, bake, share my confections, and experiment on new recipes. James is highly appreciative of all of the above. You can fully expect your own life to become sweeter when you spend time with us.

I picture a child coming right along with us as we travel to new places, meet new people, and try new foods. Kiddo will be right beside me on a chair in the kitchen, apron adjusted, making the best kind of messes. And hand in hand as we take our pup Midas for one of his many walks around the neighborhood. And exploring the dirt and grass and bushes and bringing us prize sticks, rocks, and potato bugs to admire up close.

And you’re invited to add to the story as we plan visits and calls throughout this new relationship. Life will be upgraded to a new normal, our hearts will expand to include a whole new family, and we’ll be mothers to a new story that will change the world for generations.

Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know us. We eagerly look forward to knowing you too.

All our love and admiration,


James and Emily